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CBN sets June deadline for Uniform Bank Account Number Scheme

By on April 29, 2011

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has set June this year as deadline for banks to fully comply with the Nigeria Uniform Bank Account Number (NUBAN) scheme.

This was communicated to banks via a release titled, “PROPOSALS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NUBAN SCHEME (Version 0.4)”.

Among other things, the release contained the NUBAN code for each bank and the implementation modality for the scheme.

It said, “The CBN released the Guidelines on Nigeria Uniform Bank Account Number (NUBAN) scheme in August, 2010, to achieve uniform customer bank account numbering structure among all Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria, within 9 months.

“NUBAN has great potentials to resolve the observed problems with electronic payments in Nigeria, as many of them are related to specification of wrong beneficiary account numbers.

“The mode of transition from the present situation to the NUBAN scheme has to be handled carefully to ensure the success of the scheme.

“The NUBAN codes should be communicated to existing customers as soon as the codes become available.
“Also, the owners of all new bank accounts opened from January 01, 2011, should be provided with NUBAN codes at the onset.

“The NUBAN scheme requires that the account number field in the cheque MICR code line should feature only NUBAN numbers.

“Accordingly, all new cheques issued to customers should carry NUBAN codes.

“With this transition method, the present account numbers and NUBAN codes would co-exist in the electronic payment and cheque clearing systems from January 2011 to June 2011.

“This implies that banks have to build in the required intelligence in their respective in-clearing systems to distinguish NUBAN codes from old account numbers while processing inward cheque items and electronic payment instruments, during this transition period.

“The deadline for full NUBAN compliance is June 2011.

“Therefore only instruments (paper and electronic) that carry NUBAN codes and pass the NUBAN validation test (that is, instruments with correct check digit) would be allowed in the automated clearing system as from this date.”

Source : Vanquard